Pee″vish (?), a. [OE. pevische; of uncertain origin, perh. from a word imitative of the noise made by fretful children + -ish.] 1. Habitually fretful; easily vexed or fretted; hard to please; apt to complain; querulous; petulant. “Her peevish babe.” Wordsworth.
She is peevish, sullen, froward. Shak.
2. Expressing fretfulness and discontent, or unjustifiable dissatisfaction; as, a peevish answer.
3. Silly; childish; trifling.
To send such peevish tokens to a king. Shak.
Syn. — Querulous; petulant; cross; ill-tempered; testy; captious; discontented. See Fretful.